10/9/2020 Bridget Goes to Walmart

We got to see Bridget today. She's doing really well, seems to be feeling great, & the lump actually felt slightly smaller. Definitely thinking it was a reaction from the injection of the heartworm treatment.

Since Ohio recognizes service dogs "in training", rather than meeting at the trainer's home today, we met at Walmart. She is doing AMAZINGLY well! Even the trainer is super impressed & amazed with how fantastic she is doing. He said she is actually doing so well that she is ahead of schedule! Hooray! I'm so excited & so proud of her! She is not showing any anxiousness at all in public places & is remaining very calm, & focused on the handler. On the rare occasion that she did get distracted she was very easily corrected. We did our first real session getting her used to heeling beside my manual wheelchair as well. I'm wanting to make sure she gets used to doing a consistent & perfect heel with it before moving on to the powerchair. With the powerchair weighing in at 350lbs, plus my body weight of another 100, I don't want to take any chances of crushing her feet.

We are going to start meeting at public places twice a week to work with her, plus in another week or so she will begin coming home with us for a couple days each week. On the days that we have her the trainer is wanting us to take her out on public outings & continue working with her one on one. Even though she is doing great, while this early in her training I will be sticking to pet friendly places when working with her on my own.